BMJ  2006;332:64-65 (14 January), doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7533.64

Editorial

Introducing new health interventions

There's still a long way to go to get health technology evidence into practice

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Throughout the world, healthcare innovations have put pressure on limited resources while governments and patients have demanded top quality, yet cost effective, services. This makes it increasingly difficult for anyone who plans, provides, or receives health services to judge which intervention to use—what works, how well, at what cost, for whom, in what circumstances, and with what impact? Health technology assessment (HTA) is a multidisciplinary specialty whose purpose is to bring together the evidence to answer those questions.¹ It boasts a thriving international scientific society (Health Technology Assessment International; www.htai.org) and a global network of more than 40 public sector agencies (International Network of Agencies for Health Technology Assessment; www.inahta.org). It evaluates the costs, effectiveness, and sometimes the wider impact of any intervention used in the care of patients, including medicines, devices, techniques, and skills. In the UK, for example, the HTA programme (www.ncchta.org) has . . . [Full text of this article]

Wessex Institute for Health Research and Development, University of Southampton, Southampton SO16 7PX
(jg3@soton.ac.uk)

Departmentt of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 3GF

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Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

'Diagnostics' is the Cinderella of health technology assessment

Peter N Furness
bmj.com, 15 Jan 2006 [Full text]

Sufficient assessment of interventions

Christine E Hine
bmj.com, 20 Jan 2006 [Full text]

Re: 'Diagnostics may well be a Cinderella, but not of health technology assessment

John Gabbay, et al.
bmj.com, 30 Jan 2006 [Full text]

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